Hi all,

I am attempting to refinish the floor area where we have removed a wall in our house. I replaced the wood boards with some of the original wood that I salvaged somewhere else, and that looks okay. My problem is in matching the finish.

We had stained the first room with Varathane dark walnut, and topped it with several coats of Varathane's water based finish. We're living in the house and could not afford to use any other finish.

The problem is that we stopped the stain arbitrarily between the two rooms, and now that we tried to pick up and do the other side we can't seem to blend them in.

I have NO idea why this 2nd room is coming out so much lighter, we used the same stain and the same application technique. I'd like to hear opinions and comments on what we should do at this point.

I am considering using mineral oil to remove varnish and try to blend in the stains... until I have a more even seam. And then varnish again on top. Are there better solutions?

Many thanks in advance!

 

Here's a picture.
Believe it or not the light side has had the same stain applied to it, and the results vary a LOT, even across the very same board.



I blame it on different moisture conditions while doing the work... Ambient temp was definitely different on the two days. How to repair that mess though?

 

Pascal
I wish I could tell you that there's a simple solution to your problem. Unfortunately...NOT.

The diviation in the color is due to a difference in the absortion of the wood (obviously!!). The lighter area had some kind of sealent in the wood that stopped the stain.

There are two options at this point. A colored varathane can be applied over the existing lighter area. It may take a few coats to achieve a blend.
The other alternative is to sand the floor and stain to blend. sanding the floor is faster but messy. That will, however give the best blend.

I wish there were better news!!
Good luck!

CD

 

Thanks for the quick reply!

I've already started experimenting with sanding one board and applying a bit of stain. The light colored wood just refuses to absorb much stain even though, very disconcerting.

I'd heard of the colored finishes, I might try that on one of the other boards. I'll experiment with a few things until I find a technique that I can apply over the entire "seam".

Thanks again,